Who's going skiing and where? 23-24

Who's going skiing and where? 23-24

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The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Wednesday 18th October 2023
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Lotobear said:
Yad Moss for me, just up the road and has it allbiglaugh

https://yadmoss.co.uk/
38 mins from my house!

I've waited longer than that for baggage to come out of the carrousel thingy

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Thursday 26th October 2023
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I've done:
Car-ferry-car- Alps, Boring, tiring,
Car - Aviemore.
Coach (Uni ski trips) from the Midlands about 6 times to Alps.- maximum boozing, sleep upright
Train from St. Pancras to Boug St. Maurice direct (no bed on train)
Train Euston to Paris, change to sleeper train, into Bourg.
Flights to Nice, then Cesna into Courcheval Altiport (very very cool) my mate is a pilot.
Fights to Geneva then helicopter transfer. My brother is a helicopter pilot.
1990s Landrover Defender 110 Birmingham to Alpe Duez (max speed 62 mph) PAINFUL.
Hitchhiked to Grenoble and then bus final leg
Flights in every possible variation, connections in Schipol, Paris, Heathrow, etc. Land at Munich, Grenoble, Milan, Lyon (bloody hell, central France!), Chambery (excellent unless shut)

When I was single, I used to do 4 or 5 long weekends a year and the art of the rapid last minute trip is a life long project.

The easiest by far for a week, is flying with no luggage, on a Weds (never Sat/Sun) just carry-on, and someone meet you at Geneva arrivals in their car. Can be about 4.5 hours door to door with check in 45 mins before departure.
Land, out, no carrousel, into car, into chalet. Minimum faff. Kronenbourgs open toute suite!


Edited by The_Doc on Thursday 26th October 16:06

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Tuesday 7th November 2023
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People,
What's our best thought for a cheeky weekend, fly in Thurs, fly out Mon or Tues, short drive, hotel and good snow in Feb?

Somewhere from Munich?
Geneva?

Willing to consider everything except Morzine as I've been there every year for 25 now.

Want change, thanks!

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Thursday 23rd November 2023
quotequote all
Suspicious_user said:
Well that’s the flights booked for February half term.

Bizarrely the flights were cheaper than the ferry, hire car cost less than the cost of fuel we’d use getting from Ijmuiden to Bormio, and I don’t need to book hotels as a stop over.

Will need to check the Easter prices next though I’m not sure where I’m going then, but it’s looking more and more likely to be Tignes.
Care to tell us £ and people for ½term flights?
If not, fair enough

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Tuesday 28th November 2023
quotequote all
About 50m up the hill from Dixie, before Bar Robinson. (on the one-way)
Used to be a snow gear shop called The Park

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Thursday 30th November 2023
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interstellar said:
Where are the best bars in morzine now?
Opinion:
Crépu.
Tremplin 5pm to 8pm, particularly in the summer
Cavern
Haka
Bec is nice, but very small

And obviously, Opera.

My brother ran a bar in MZN for 5 yrs.


Edited by The_Doc on Thursday 30th November 22:22

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Wednesday 6th December 2023
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UTH said:
Hmmm, yes, maybe not the best yard stick haha.
I'm 'fairly' good at doing my rehab exercises at home, at least 3 days a week I am. Seeing physio every two weeks. My leg feels bloody strong to be fair, but I am concerned by this new pain. I might go back to see my surgeon at some point as these rehab exercises don't seem to be improving the pain, although they're also not making it worse, which is strange and makes me think it's not ACL related.
ACLs don't "hurt". They don't have nerves, well the graft doesn't but others things in the knee can be an issue. You should be pain free by 3 months and perfect recovery (think Premiership footballer) would get to skiing at 7+ months.
Ask to see your surgeon again. I don't think it's me smile

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Friday 15th December 2023
quotequote all
timlongs said:
Morning everyone from Sapaudia Brewing HQ (666m altitude). For those who remember in the previous thread before they got merged, I had shared the photo of the car park of the brewery nice and snowy.

Now it's green after a solid week of rain. The good news is that from what I can see, most pistes above 1500m look fine - we had such good early snow that the rain hasn't totally ruined everything. I was in Les Gets yesterday and the lower slopes definitely haven't faired as well.

.


This was the Dranse river leading north out of Morzine yesterday (the Thonon road)
Lots of water coming off the mountains
Anyhow, my parents say they are hoping to ski today

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Saturday 16th December 2023
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Avoriaz today

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Thursday 21st December 2023
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One plank beats two.

Nice and dry to sit on in the middle of the piste, just over a rise.

Makes a better sound, on the ice

The other sex admires me more too, but let's keep the chat about winter sports.

smile


The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Wednesday 27th December 2023
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I was on the chairlift going down (parallel to) the Swiss Wall a long time ago. We rarely ski it, it's just so steep

The chair down is about 15 mins, it has the best view of the Wall, all the people picking their way down it. Unusually it's a chair that let's you descend.

About ½ way down, someone wiped out and started tumbling and cresting the moguls.she looked uphappy.

Then 2 bumps layer she went limp like a ragdoll and tumbled the rest of the way down, at least 12 more moguls, before it went level and the skiers nearby went over and put her in the recovery position.

On the chairlift we initially cheered and clapped her wipeout. Then we were trapped in some sort of Clockwork Orange viewing of extreme unpleasantness from our suspended, super slow progressing, viewpoint. About 150 of us.

Swiss Wall, for mugs.

Last time i did it, we cut left on snowboards and sacked it off.
No yard sale for me

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Thursday 4th January
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JQ said:
//j17 said:
In Morzine you want to be (in ski boot) walking distance of the Pleny gondola
A game changer for us several years ago was renting a ski locker in the Pleney lift station - £50 for the week (for 5 of us) and saved all the grief of carting stuff round with the little ones. Be warned yohave to pre-book though.
If you rent from the rental shop at the bottom of the Pleney, they let you store your rental stuff at night, and your shoes during the day, in their basement for free.
I recommend Ski VTT Francoise Baud AKA Rideability

https://maps.app.goo.gl/zAhrS5dtQRrP1NTV7 shown here in the summer with the mountain bike garb outside, but you can see where it is.

It's virtually opposite the Caisse and very reasonable, The Baud Family are Morzine's age-old mafia-esque clan.


The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Monday 15th January
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Have repaired a few top surfaces of snowboards with boat/marine glassfibre resin kits.

I once cracked the nose of a board on the first day I rode it.
Swiss manufactured, damaged in Switzerland and when I talked to them they said take it back to where you bought it for analysis and or replacement. The board lives in the Alps in our accom

Ellis Brigham in Leeds to return it.

So I didn't and repaired it myself. It's still going strong.

Edited by The_Doc on Monday 15th January 10:40

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Thursday 8th February
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Whatever happened to the plans for a slingshot, one line, cable car from Morzine to Avoriaz?
There was video with a station de départ at either the SuperMorzine or bottom of the Pleney (!) and then no step off until the bottom of the new Prodains lift, so almost seamless transport to 1800 m Avoriaz.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=auongHYu-cAHIy7E&am...

Skip to 6:00 mins in


Edited by The_Doc on Friday 9th February 09:32

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Saturday 10th February
quotequote all
The worry, is that the mass building of super chalets and super apartments in the French ski villages will create an accommodation bubble.
There are loads of them and they have significantly changed the character of many of the village resorts. I'm not talking the Pierre-et-Vacance resorts. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoriaz#:~:text=Av...

If none of these villages are going to be snow-sure below 2000m, then we are going to see problems.

As pure bricks/mortar investments, the buildings must be seen as a poor asset. As private purchase, also risky. As buildings to generate rental, well would you?

So maybe buying property in the low(er) Alps is going to get cheap again.

My family bought something for 100k a long long time ago that is now worth 8 times that. But everything has gone up x8, so it's moot.

Or maybe there are infinite tourists, and it just isn't Emma and Hugo from Reading any more?
(with Tabatha and Finley in Joules outerwear)


Edited by The_Doc on Saturday 10th February 11:27

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Thursday 22nd February
quotequote all
JEA1K said:
Zurich works like clockwork dare I say. Yes its generally further to travel to Austria but its such a large airport, it copes with winter travel better. I can't recall one delay from there and we've used it regularly in winter. I remember turning up late as our train was delayed ... well, when I say late, we had about 40 mins before we were due to fly ... the Swiss air staff got us through as quickly as poss ... the only downside was we had to wheel the snowboard bags all the way through the airport to ensure they got on the plane ... but it worked. Last bags on = first bags offsmile

Security is great there, like you say, no queue as they just open another floor and send you down there. There's no way I would choose to drive to Austria over flying to Zurich.

And let me tell you, Zurich airport is very different to Geneva airport which is absoluetly awful!
Flying out of Geneva is terrible on the weekends in the winter and with Easyjet.
Occasionally I do AirFrance to Paris, sometimes KLM to Schipol and you get better gates and proper check in.

Also GVA on a Tuesday (for instance) morning is very tolerable.
And it's nice in the summer
I flew to Paris and left from the French terminal, very agreeable, and once I got gate A1 flying BA to Heathrow.
Gate A1, not gate Z999 as Easyjet give you!

So, GVA with Easyjet on a Saturday in February, yes very bad. But it's not impossible to fly nicely out of there.
French side hire car, trolley from the carousel to the car (no bus) You can get to the PdS in 45 mins in the nighttime going via Thonon.

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Friday 23rd February
quotequote all
eps said:
That's quite a Triumph!
small appreciative head nod

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Wednesday 13th March
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CivicDuties said:
Friend of a friend in my town has died a couple of weeks ago in a ski incident. Father of 3 teenagers.

Take care out there.

Edited by CivicDuties on Wednesday 13th March 15:01
That's terrible.
How did this happen?
Off piste?
Guided?
I've skied for 38 yrs and never really seen anything dangerous. Although I have been caught in a few true white-outs, and I'm talking hallucinating in the white and crawling to the piste poles at the side.

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Wednesday 13th March
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eeLee said:
Given the number of helicopter recoveries I have seen this season on a daily basis, accidents appear to be more common and worse than ever.
The scientist in me would argue with this, although I do see that you said "appears to be"

A. What's the denominator? Are there just more people skiing? In which case if there are 3times as many people skiing but twice the accidents, then it's safer.
B. Everything is reported globally with an emphasis on the gory bad news, so if something bad happens, the whole world finds out 9 minutes later.
C. Safety equipment use has gone up hugely. Twenty years ago nobody wore a helmet, and I mean nobody.
D. What's the hypothesis for more accidents? People are weaker? Gravity stronger? Mountains steeper?
E. More helicopters to rescue people = more visible incidents.

Viz: "There's loads more sexual crime/abduction /violence now"
-when the data says it was worse in the 1970/80s

Wouldn't everyone be happier if bad news wasn't so widely reported?

Sorry, work analytical mode off.


Edited by The_Doc on Wednesday 13th March 20:51

The_Doc

Original Poster:

4,914 posts

221 months

Friday 15th March
quotequote all
If you have paid for the trip, then ignorance is bliss.

Stop looking at the forecast and make the best of it when I get there, is my plan.

If you are looking for a reason to cancel and get your money back, or you haven't made or bought travel plans yet, then watch the forecasts.
What I don't know can't hurt me